Eileen Smith Liu Pan Shan Book Project

What is the Eileen Smith Liu Pan Shan Book Project?

Started in 2010, the project donates library books to elementary and middle schools in economically depressed regions. Its purpose is to: 1) engender a love of reading in children that will help them in school and that they will pass on to their children, and 2) open their eyes to the world outside their villages. So far, more than 5000 books have been donated to 17 different schools.

Who was Eileen Smith?

Eileen
Smith, the mother of LEAPAsia's founder and president, was a consummate teacher who spent hours at the kitchen table
preparing her preschool and Sunday morning lessons. On trips to train
teachers in China, she stuffed her bags with teaching materials that
left room for a thin layer of clothing. Whether preschoolers, teenagers,
or adults, she loved her students. She took her reading almost as
seriously as her teaching and was known to say to her family, "I'm going
to lie down and read for an hour. Don't bother me." Woe to the person
who interrupted. She would have been the book project’s greatest fan but would have met the news of it being named for her with a shout of embarrassed laughter.